Mass. woman fined $4,000 for voting in two states

Tuesday

Sep 25, 2007 at 12:01 AMSep 25, 2007 at 1:34 PM

A Weston, Mass., woman who illegally voted in a pair of Connecticut state elections while still registered to vote in Massachusetts will pay a $4,000 fine for the violations, Connecticut election officials said this week.

Peter Reuell

A Weston woman who illegally voted in a pair of Connecticut state elections while still registered to vote in Massachusetts will pay a $4,000 fine for the violations, Connecticut election officials said this week.

Though her primary residence is on Church Street in Weston, Alicia Primer spends her summers at her family's Groton, Conn. home, and mistakenly believed her status as a property owner allowed her to vote in the state.

Primer could not be reached yesterday for comment.

The investigation into Primer's Connecticut votes began this summer, when Groton's Democratic Registrar of Voters filed a complaint with state election officials.

Investigators found that while her family had purchased the Groton property in 2003, and she took sole ownership of it in 2006, Primer's chief residence is her Weston home.

Records indicate Primer, who is an appointed member of Weston's Historical Commission, voted in Massachusetts every year but one between 1996 and 2006.

How was Primer allowed to register in both states?

Investigators found when she registered in Connecticut, Primer did not fill out the part of the registration labeled ``Previous Voting Address.''

If she had included her Weston address, Connecticut registrars would have contacted officials in Massachusetts, to make sure Primer's name was removed from local voting rolls.

``Failure to provide her previous voting address, as required, resulted in the inability of election officials to detect her dual registration until after she had voted,'' a decision filed with the Connecticut Election Enforcement Commission reads.

Under the terms of the decision, Primer's name will be removed from Groton's voter rolls.

Though Primer could have faced more serious penalties, Connecticut officials say they do not believe she intended to cast the illegal ballots.

``The Commission considers registering to vote and voting in more than one jurisdiction at a time a serious offense, but is utilizing its civil authority due to what it perceives as the lack of intent on the part of (Primer) to commit a crime,'' the decision reads.

The first Connecticut election Primer cast a vote in, in August 2006, was the Democratic primary for state representative for the 41st District, which ended in a tie between Elissa Wright and Rita Schmidt.

Under state law, the race was decided by the flip of a coin, which was won by Wright, who went on to win the general election, which Primer also voted in, by absentee ballot.

According to reports, Wright later worked to change Connecticut state law to do away with the practice of decided tied election by lots, instead requiring a runoff election.

Peter Reuell of The MetroWest (Mass.) Daily News can be reached at 508-626-4428, or at preuell@cnc.com.